Gaudi in Barcelona →

Just wow! I never knew about Gaudi until coming to Barcelona, but after touring 3 buildings inspired by his creativity, count me a fan. Most of you have probably heard of Basilica de la Sagrada Familia (Basilica of the Sacred Family). I only knew of it as a must-see destination in Barcelona. While I was visiting, I was mesmerized. The outside is almost too much to take in.

That’s one side. This is another:

You enter through the Nativity Facade, which is pictured above, and in more detail, below -

Gaudi worked on this from 1883 until his death in 1926. This facade was the only one completed during his lifetime. The three facades - Nativity, Passion and Glory - tell the life of Christ.

As you walk in, you appreciate the feeling of walking in a forest filled with light -

The nave’s roof is 150 ft high. The ceiling and floor were only completed in 2010, just in time for Pope Benedict XVI to consecrate the church. The colors bathing the interior from the stained glass just took my breath away.

The altarpiece, besides having the crucifix, has a canopy to symbolize Pentecost, or the descent of the Holy Spirit in tongues of flame -

One side of the church has windows of glass in cool colors…

… while the opposite has the fiery colors of sunset -

The “Our Father” is written out in Catalan, while the phrase “give us this day our daily bread” is written in 50 other languages:

This door will open out into the Glory Facade, after the city manages to buy out the owners of the drab condos just outside, to build a grand esplanade.

Gaudi is very much inspired by nature, and seems to abhor right angles.

The columns definitely resemble tree trunks, and are made of porphyry (a very hard reddish rock originally mined in Egypt), basalt and granite…

… and the arches at the top of the columns remind you of branches.

There are whimsical touches on the top of spires outside, representing fruits of the harvest -

… which will segue into another Gaudi house we visited, Casa Batllo.

This is Modernista architecture at its most fanciful. As we learned at Sagreda Familia, Gaudi loved incorporating nature into his designs, and this house was to make you feel as if you were living in the sea.

Again, there were no straight lines, and even the ceiling evoked ideas of a shell -

This was the center light filled air shaft, showing the various floors and terraces -

Gaudi really had fun on the roof, where the chimneys were covered in tiles and mosaics -

… and a dragon roamed -

There are two other buildings that Gaudi designed (and we visited), but they have a much different look and feel, so I’ll save them for another post.